Amazon Wins $50 Million Deal to Stream NFL Thursday Games on Prime Video

Amazon has won the rights to broadcast 10 National Football League Thursday night games live online this season, as part of its video content strategy exclusive to Prime subscription members.

The company paid $50 million for the one-year deal, according to Bloomberg, taking over from a similar agreement Twitter had last year that saw the social media service sprout an Apple TV app for users to watch the games free of charge. Amazon has made Prime Video apps available for iPhone and iPad, but has yet to offer one for Apple TV.

Image via Mark J. Rebilas/USA TODAY Sports

The games will continue to be broadcast on TV by CBS, NBC, and the NFL Network. The short-term deals reflect the football league's strategy up until 2021, when the traditional broadcast deals start to expire. After that, NFL will reportedly treat tech companies as potential suitors alongside regular television networks.

Amazon offers original movies and shows as part of its Prime Video service. Early last year, the company began offering Prime Video as a standalone $8.99 monthly subscription deal with an option to cancel at any time, as an alternative for those who don't want to sign up to the all-in $99 Amazon Prime annual subscription.

I'm going to say it -- Apple should have jumped on this rather than concerning itself with a lame reality show about apps staring Gwenth Paltrow. Personally I think they should have bid hard for Sunday Ticket. That would have made ATV a must have and there would have been a mad rush for them.

Wonderful, but it all comes back to blackouts. I tried to watch a baseball game yesterday with mlb tv and it was blacked out. With football there are even less games to see. So every blackout represents real and noticeable loss of value.

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